Life as We Know it [Five]

Nineteen

Do you get more pleasure from giving or receiving gifts?

Five was irrational, demented, angry, psychotic, deranged, unhinged, and any other word that could currently attune to whatever the hell Five was at the moment. He had passed the line between angry psychotic and just purely psychotic a long time ago and was still climbing.

Simply put, he was a child who had been denied access to the cookie jar and was now hellbent set on world damnation by his hands and his hands only.

Technically speaking though, he was an old man stuck in a child's body who had traveled through time and was now walking behind his past self.

So in all honesty, the first one sounded more plausible than what was currently going on.

Luther of course, was walking with past Five up ahead which left Emery to babysit young Five and the background commentary that came from the child.

"What are you looking at? You see something funny huh?" Five lashed out at random people who just happened to glance their way. "Stop staring asshole! Mind your business, or I'll give you something to stare at!" He shouted again.

Emery just dragged a hand down his face, massaging his temples as Five raged on. "You wish you could pull off these shorts!" He defended.

"Come on. Luther's waiting." Emery hissed, roughly grabbing Five by the sleeve and dragging him forward.

"Luther can wait. These assholes have something to prove. They keep staring." Five said, plastering on a death glare as he looked at everyone in passing.

"You're psychotic Five. Stay on task."

Five scoffed. "Easier said than done, Emery."

"Hey, brother. How you doing?" Luther said as the two boys caught up to walk side by side with the man.

Five shrugged the remnants of Emery's grip off of him and regained his bearings.

"He's gonna kill me, isn't he?"

Luther scoffed. "What?" He asked, voice hitching. "What him? He's gonna kill you? Yeah right. That's ridiculous."

"You know you're a terrible liar, Luther. You're a worse liar than you are a spotter." Five said.

"Okay, whose fault is that? What good is having a spotter if you won't even listen to him?"

"So you admit you're conspiring against me?" Five said, voice a harsh whisper.

"Do... do you admit that you're suffering from paradox psychosis?" Luther fired back.

"Five just defended the way he wore his shorts to a random stranger. I think he's suffering from paradox psychosis." Emery deadpanned.

"Shut up, Emery you don't know anything." He turned back to Luther. "All I'm suffering from is clarity about you and your murderous intentions." Five said, scratching.

"Look, it's not like he's gonna 'kill you' kill you. He just wants to kill a, um... version of you."

"But I am that version of me. And you're banishing Emery too. Leaving him to die at the hands of the Handler if he doesn't hitch a ride back." Five said, keeping up with the man.

"You're killing me?" Emery asked, suddenly not completely on board with the whole double-crossing idea.

"Hey, I don't love it either, but he's actually got a pretty good plan," Luther said.

"What? The one where you guys off the both of us and then jump to 2019 to save the world?"

"Yeah, wait, how did you know that!" Luther asked, surprised at the inferences made.